Education Reform

America’s public schools are failing, under the influence of teachers’ unions and special interests. This monopolistic system traps students in an environment that is ill-equipped to provide them with the education they need. It’s time to put parents in charge, by giving them a real choice over how to educate their children. When schools compete and parents are free to choose, the educational benefits are amazing.

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When I was growing up under Mao’s regime in China, we were told to chant everyday in the government run public schools, “Long Live Chairman Mao, Long Live Communist Party.” We were required to write in our dairies every day and turn them in for teachers to review. In the dairies, we were supposed to confess our incorrect thoughts to Mao or do self criticism, or report anything bad we heard or saw from other students, family, and friends. We would memorize Mao’s Quotations and recite them aloud during class. For school fun activities, we would dress up as Chinese minority people in their costumes to sing and dance, thanking Mao and Communist Party from saving them from poverty, or dressed up like soldiers to fight for new China. Mao was like a god to me. I would see him rising from the stove fire or talking to me from the clouds.

As parents desiring to find a proper high school education for our 13 year old son, we have been researching a prep school in Indiana that shares our values of faith, founders and traditional academics. This school, as does the majority of all prep schools, employs the services of the SSAT (Secondary School Admissions Test) exam. It’s this that I want to discuss.

Fresh off winning the Democratic primary race against rival New York Senator Adriano Espaillat, Representative Charles Rangel came out swinging against the United Federation of Teachers for endorsing his opponent.

One of the greatest barriers to education reform, and the symbol of public sector intransigence, is teacher tenure. These statutes make it nearly impossible and incredibly expensive to fire poorly performing teachers. But in a landmark victory for education reform, a California judge ruled that teacher tenure and a slew of other job protection clauses are unconstitutional and should not be enforced by school districts.

As I wrote some time ago, the market for student loans is a mess that is rapidly heading for a painful correction. The Obama administration’s misguided quest to provide higher education for all has distorted the cost calculations of college to a devastating degree. Yet, rather than recognize the dangerous bubble he has created, the president is now doubling down—backing a policy dreamed up by Elizabeth Warren to allow the refinancing of student loans en masse at current interest rates, and making up the cost with the “Buffet Rule,” a special provision that would ensure that millionaires pay a minimum income tax rate.

If there’s one group of people who are getting a raw deal these days, it’s the young. The unemployment rate among 16- to 19-year-olds is a whopping 19.1 percent, ObamaCare is raising the costs of health insurance for young people by compelling them to subsidize their parents and grandparents, and the current generation of politicians continues to rack up debt that will one day have to be paid for at future generations’ expense.